The Help Key Quotes Flashcards
‘eat my shit’
‘two slices’ of ‘shit’
‘Terrible Awful Thing’
‘I gave her what she deserve!’
‘I ain’t telling. I ain’t telling nobody about that pie’.
Rebellious/shocking act shows how she cannot endeavour and tolerate any further racism directed at her.
Minny shows little remorse or regret, highlighting her confidence in her actions.
The use of African American Vernacular English is used represent the divide between the culture of Minny and the white community she works for, whilst also reflecting their opposing ideologies.
This repetition shows how defiance must be covert to prevent threatening her income, family or possibly even her life.
Why must the defiance of the black community be covert?
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, lynch mobs, carrying out extrajudicial killings against African Americans, were still active, even with the development of the Civil Rights Movement. For example, in 1955, the lynching of fourteen year old Emmet Till occurred after he was accused of offending a white woman. These events were commonplace, extensive and simply used as a method to instil terror throughout the wider black community.
‘Medgar Evers’
‘NAACP Field Secretary’
‘right in front a his children’
‘brothers and your sisters in the bedroom. Get in bed. And stay back there.’
Controlled, calm statements contrast the distress and panic throughout the black community.
Minny and Aibileen are deeply troubled, but maintain composure for children, reflecting the necessity to stay discreet in order to protect one another form the harsh reality.
Evers’ murder was shockingly tragic, but impacted the nation and inspired further development to achieve Civil Rights.
Throughout The Help, Minny’s actions and words are shown to be covertly defiant, but after hearing about Evers’ murder, we see that they may also act as a powerful device to encourage further rebellion in order to break the normalised conformity, dismissal to societal standards and to escape the extensive injustice.
‘president’
‘Junior League’
‘politician’s wife’
‘big bows and matching hats’
Hilly = archetypal Southern Belle
Conformed to stereotype of ideal housewife
Acts as a stark contrast to Skeeter
‘real tall and skinny’
‘yellow’
‘cut short above her shoulders cause she get the frizz’
‘like somebody else told her what to wear’
This unconventional description reflects her individual nature and shows how she rebels against all aspects of societal expectations.
Skeeter tries to conform in order to avoid being ostracised, but her more progressive views seem to be preventing her from executing this in an effective way.
‘salesgirl’
‘w/poise, manners and a smile’,
men include ‘bank managers, accountants, loan officers, cotton collate officers’, each being paid ‘fifty cents more an hour’
This reflects the extreme gender inequality, predominant throughout society. Skeeter is able to take notice of these details, unlike many other women who are obliged to conform, contributing to the idea that she aspires to achieve more, further demonstrating her possession of more forward thinking qualities.
‘I told you. I didn’t meet anybody I wanted to marry’
Defiant tone and indicates that Skeeter is tired of trying to belong in a society where she feels like an outsider.
Skeeter’s mother is aiming to find a suitable husband for her daughter in order to secure an ideal, conventional lifestyle, however, Skeeter wants anything but this.
‘never be able to tell Mother’ that she wants ‘to be a writer’
Mother will ‘only turn it into yet another thing that separates’ her ‘from the married girls’
This creates a clear social divide between the married housewives and Skeeter, secluding her from societal normality. Skeeter’s inability to fully confront and defy her mother’s expectations, however, demonstrates her subtle need to still conform, to an extent, in order to avoid social exclusion.
As a white woman in 1960s Mississippi, unlike Minny, Skeeter is in a far more privileged position, as she has freedom to utilise her rebellious ability and still maintain a somewhat respectable position within the social hierarchy.
‘Martin Luther King’ has ‘announced a march on D.C. and invited every Negro in America to join him. Every white person, for that matter.’
This monumental event demonstrates how the Civil Rights Movement was advancing throughout the North, with the ‘Negro’ and ‘white’ people marching together creating a sense of unity.
‘no Southern newspaper would publish’ Skeeter’s ideas.
This simple statement reinforces the racial divide throughout the South and the resistance to development or change. Stockett uses this to further highlight the punishing segregation inflicted in the South and to truly demonstrate the extensive, cruel injustice that prevailed.
‘toilet and a little sink attached to the wall. A pull cord for the lightbulb’ ‘paper have to set on the floor.’
The dehumanising nature of the black maids’ toilet being outside reflects the racist attitudes towards the black community, with many white people; such as Hilly, viewing them as ‘wild animals’.
‘separate but equal’
This short statement is almost oxymoronic, and simply summarises the discriminative, Southern ideology concerning racial segregation
‘Protect yourself. Protect your children. Protect your help’
Stockett uses the anaphoric tricolon to create a sense of irony, as it is clear that Hilly indeed lacks concern for the health of the black maids, further demonstrating her careless attempt to substantiate segregation.
‘white trash’
‘glue – on eyelashes’
‘tacky pink pantsuit’
‘White trash’ was a class related derogatory term used across the South in the 1960s to refer to the ‘lazy’ poor within the white community.
Minny is familiar with working for the traditional upper – middle class white women, so she is able to identify variations in how Celia presents herself, in comparison to other women.
‘staring down that mimosa tree with the axe in her hand. But she never takes a chop.’
The ‘mimosa tree’ represents Celia’s repressed, internalised aversion of the societal gender norms imposed on her.
She yearns to abolish this from her life, but constantly seems to be gripping onto a segment of hope, as shown thrown her inability to chop down the mimosa tree.
Celia’s repeated miscarriages and infertility are a further attribute that separates her from the other women of society, as she cannot embrace the traditional role of a ‘1960s mother’ and socialise with other women and their own children, due to her lack of this common factor.
